Bizspace Spotlight

Accounting firm Reznick Group P.C. is relocating from the Perimeter to Two Alliance Center in Buckhead.

Reznick Group will occupy three floors, bringing the 20-story tower at Lenox Road and Georgia 400 to almost 80 percent leased. Owner Tishman Speyer has reached that leasing milestone with several big relocations since September 2009, including Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. and Novelis Inc.

Reznick Group is currently housed in 2002 Perimeter Summit, owned by GE Asset Management. It plans to move to Two Alliance in September and take about 70,00 square feet, with a 15-year term.

Reznick Group was scouring the Atlanta market for several months, and looked at nearly a dozen buildings, including Buckhead’s Phipps Tower and 3630 Peachtree. It chose Two Alliance because many of its employees commute from across metro Atlanta, and the building has quick access to Ga. 400 and the nearby Buckhead MARTA station. Reznick Group, whose leadership believes it has grown into the premier real estate accounting firm, wanted to be in Buckhead because it’s home to some of the largest real estate services firms, such as CB Richard Ellis Inc. and Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.

Reznick also believes an intown location gives it the best shot at attracting the next wave of young workers, or Generation Y, which wants to live and work in the urban core. Buckhead, the firm believes, is the most prominent intown market among Generation Y workers.

“Buckhead is real strategic for us for several reasons,” said Wes Hudson, managing principal in Reznick’s Atlanta office. “Being in Buckhead carries a lot of status, and that is going to help us recruit the top talent out of college, as well as retain talent across all levels of our employee base.” Reznick Group is going to redesign its office to a more collaborative layout, a widespread trend within the professional services industry. Whereas everyone once had their own cubicles and every partner had a corner office, accounting firms like Reznick are now using workgroups.

This trend is also influenced by Gen Y, which prefers to work in open, airy layouts rather than traditional office space, and wants more collaboration among different work groups.

GE Asset Management will try to lock up a long-term tenant to fill the 72,000-squre-foot leasing hole Reznick will create. However, its lease will not expire in 2002 Perimeter Summit until 2014.

Reznick Group is already subleasing one of the floors.

Less than a year and a half ago, Tishman Speyer had no tenants in its nearly 480,000-square-foot building. But it has landed some of the biggest deals in Buckhead since then, including Marsh & McLennan (125,000 square feet (Buckhead’s largest new lease in a decade), Turner Construction Co. (30,000 square feet) and aluminum giant Novelis (about 100,000 square feet).

The portfolio includes Westfork Business Park, a 224,000-square-foot property located at 660 Campbell Court in Lithia Springs; 6555 Fulton Industrial Boulevard, a 375,000-square-foot property located in the Fulton Industrial area; and 125 Horizon Drive, a 600,000-square-foot property located in Suwanee.

With the addition, Transwestern has grown its leasing and management portfolio by 147 percent during the past two years.

Best in Real Estate

Nominations are now open for Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Best in Atlanta Real Estate Awards.

The deadline is Jan. 28 for projects and deals for calendar year 2010. For information on nominations, contact Rachael Gates, rgates@bizjournals.com or (404) 249-6309.

Cotton picks One Deerfield Centre

Cotton States Mutual Insurance Co. has relocated to Alpharetta’s One Deerfield Centre, where it will lease 67,000 square feet.

It’s the largest deal in North Fulton in 2010 and brings One Deerfield to 90 percent leased. The building has doubled its leasing percentage since 2006, despite an anemic job market the past two years and an extremely competitive leasing environment marked by steep concessions.

UBS, on behalf of one of its managed investment accounts, reached the lease agreement with Cotton States. One Deerfield is located within Deerfield Park, the 554-acre master-planned community developed by Hines.

One Deerfield overcame setbacks of the recession and slow recovery, including the loss of Nortel Networks Corp., which leased almost 40,000 square feet. The telecommunication equipment-maker, once ranked as Atlanta’s fourth-largest telecom company and known as “the AT&T of Canada,” filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

Larry Puzzo, director and asset manager for UBS, said ownership was able to weather the downturn because of One Deerfield’s strengths, including its ability to offer a corporate headquarters environment and a large array of amenities.

Cotton States recently sold its stake in 244 Perimeter Center Parkway. The 260,000-square-foot building was jointly owned by Cotton States Mutual Insurance and an undisclosed partner.

Cotton States vacated the building and sought to lease new space. Several corporations have relocated from the suburbs to intown markets such as Buckhead, where overdevelopment became an issue and building owners were offering the highest concessions. However, North Fulton has recently lured expansions for electronic payments company Vesta Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

In 2009, UBS also landed Philips Electronics at One Deerfield, where it signed a 109,697-square-foot lease.

For Cotton States, One Deerfield featured several advantages, including easy access to Georgia 400 and ample parking, said Jeff Koerner, chief operating officer.